Hello,

My probation is in NJ, transferred from NY. Im on 5 years probation for selling smoke. I have done about 1.5 years so far, not a single blemish.

Ive been doing great in university, so well that they wanted to send me to a different country to do humanitarian work in the field I am studying (engineering).

I asked my officer in NJ a half year before I would go, and she said "Sure No problem at all!" I told her Id be gone for 6 months but she said it could be arranged.

One week before I go, I meet up with the officer and she seemed extremely surprised about the length of the trip, and said id have to go to NY to check if itd be okay, but she seemed very optimistic.

I go to New York, and they said NJ has full say on the matter.

I tried going back to NJ, but they were closed for the weekend, and a holiday came up. My school had me all set up to go, plane ticket, and the company I'd do humanitarian aid for made living arrangements. My work over here translates to 900 hours of community service.

6 weeks ago I hear that my probation officer was looking for me, and said "This is not good!" to my parents =(

I immediately wrote a letter to the probation officer, and judge in NY explaining the entire situation, and asking if I should come back or not. So far, I haven't heard anything further from anyone.

To Recap:
I did seek permission, was granted oral permission, so I made all the arrangements with my school and the humanitarian organization in the foreign country, and a week before I was to leave, my officer did not give me permission (saying there was a misunderstanding of the time I'd be gone), and said I had to check with the NY state probation. I checked with them but they sent me back to NJ

After not being able to contact the NJ officer, and my flight was upcoming, I went.

I heard my probation officer was looking for me, so I sent both the probation officer and judge a letter asking what I should do -- asked if I should come back. Its been 2 months and I have yet to hear from either. Its been 4 months since I've been gone. I plan on being back in June.

Will I be in trouble upon my return?
Reply With Quote

What's your take on this?

Im sorry, my original posts says "Reply With Quote" not too sure why it says this, and you don't have to reply with quote!

I would give the PO a call.

No, you only talked to them, you needed to request a formal written approval, you needed in writing, about 6 months before, it takes months to get this type of approval, not weeks. So when she told you 6 months before, it should be no problem, then you needed to start the formal approval process

At this point and time you left without any formal approval, so you have violated your probation.

You should be callign an attorney first thing in the morning to start work on this, to keep a warrant from waiting on you when you get back.

My guess there will be.

Will I be in trouble upon my return?Hello Jim:

I think so. You might as well finish your over seas thing, though. It won't be any worse. I'd also hire a lawyer BEFORE you come back.

excon

You chose to willingly get on the plane as that seemed more pressing to you than for you to stay and do your probation. More than likely as Chuck and Excon said there will be a warrant for your arrest when you get off the plane. It doesn't matter if you supposedly had an "oral" permisison to leave the country. In your type of case you would have had to obtain a written permission only. And once you had that written permission you would have had to carry that paperwork with you and treat it like gold.

Right now you messed up. I don't think the judge will care if it was a humanitarian thing or you were going to go partying in the other country. You didn't uphold your end of probation and therefore he's going to see it his way and make sure you probably do some if not all of your 5 years in jail instead of more probation.

Yes, get an attorney before you land back here. And be prepared to spend time in jail waiting for your probation violating hearing. There is no bail either when you violate probation.

Enjoy your vacation and trip abroad so that you will have some wonderful memories to entertain you while you are serving your time.